


Magazine

by redhonedge



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 16:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4529346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redhonedge/pseuds/redhonedge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>archie and maxie are literally children but for some reason courtney senses that there is a spark between them. the most logical thing to do, of course, is to rope in her girlfriend into hooking them up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magazine

“Courtney, don’t you think it’s kinda ridiculous?”  
  
The low thrum of music pulsed through the burger joint, playing from an old refurnished jukebox that a crowd of children giddily pushed against in their eagerness to see something from an older time. It was something with a bit of energy that easily could entice anyone to get out of their booth and start dancing to, but as the lavender-haired ex-Magma admin sucked on the straw of her milkshake, her thoughts were on things other than dancing.  
“Courtney, look at me, not at yer ice cream.”  
Pale purple eyes turned up solemnly, her lips still stuck on the straw as she stared stonily at her girlfriend.

“I’m pre’ sure it isn’t that ridiculous, Shelly,” grumbled Courtney, leering at the woman across the table who was absent-mindedly stirring her own strawberry milkshake with her straw.  
They certainly looked like a regular couple of girls out—Shelly with her long, blue-streaked black hair in a high ponytail and dressed up in casual clothing, Courtney matching with her shorter hair pinned back with floral hair clips. Tugging at her brown skirt and readjusting her gray cardigan as if in preparation of giving a long speech, Courtney sat up properly and away from her drained milkshake, puffing out her cheeks.  
Shelly gave her a dead stare.  
“Don’t tell me you don’t practically feel the sexual tension between them _all the time_?” Courtney began, her cheeks still a bit poofed up but otherwise flattening so that she could properly speak. Shelly blinked blue-eye shadow laden eyes, presumably an invitation to carry on.

“I’m pretty sure I can prove it to you if we can get them to go out on just _one date—_ they’re practically drooling over each other whenever they’re even in the same room! Imagine if they were actually in a setting where they could do just that, instead of pretending to hate each other.”  
Shelly raised an eye brow, but didn’t speak, instead slowly drinking her milkshake in thought. Courtney waited patiently, folding her hands on the recently cleaned table next to her empty glass as she watched her girlfriend take her time with evaluating her proposal.

Finally, she finished, straightening up, only to prop her elbow up on the table and place her chin in the dip of her palm.  
“This doesn’t have to do with any of that fanfiction of yours, does it?”  
Her dead-serious and determined look lit up like the Prism Tower in Kalos, Courtney’s face burning a bright red as her rock-like exterior crumbled.  
“W-what, how—“  
“Babe, you leave your laptop on all the time with no lock on it. And though I’m pretty dang good at minding my own business, when I look over and see the title _Dirty Midnight—“  
“_ It’s actually _Filthy Midnight._ ”  
Shelly didn’t look amused and Courtney realized she wasn’t helping herself and thus fell silent.  
“Whatever. Either way, I’ve seen it, I’ve read it, and while I think you got somethin’ goin’ there with that nice writing of yours, I just hope you aren’t confusing reality with fantasy.”  
  
Finding her resolve again despite the startling revelation that her girlfriend was looking through her laptop—apparently she needed to be a lot less trusting—Courtney’s look of embarrassment caved into determination.  
“You can just _feel_ it, Shelly! Can’t you?”  
Pondering it, Shelly eventually just sighed, slurping one last time on her half-gone milkshake before pushing it aside.  
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll admit. Those two are gay as fuck for each other,” she grumbled, Courtney giving her a scolding look for her foul language.  
Rolling her eyes and scooting out of her booth, Shelly dug out some money out of her pocket and slapped it down on the table.

“Let’s go, we got work to do,” Shelly grunted, feeling warmth in her chest when seeing Courtney light up in delight. Admittedly, as stupid as this all was going to be, making Courtney happy was enough to make it worth it.  
“Yes!” Courtney cheered, letting herself be helped up by Shelly’s offered hand. Dragged close, Shelly’s arm fitting snugly around her waist, Courtney’s self-satisfied smile was promptly kissed away, Shelly’s free hand cupping the former Magma admin’s cheek.  
“Don’t let this get to your head—you owe me, remember that,” Shelly told her shortly, but Courtney’s infectious smile that still remained eventually spread to her and she sighed, shaking her head.  
“Whatever, let’s just go.”  
Courtney hummed in agreement, too excited and with too many rapid thoughts pouring through her mind to give Shelly a proper response as she was deftly led out of the burger joint and into the sunshine of Slateport.

\---

“It’s absolutely _ridiculous!_ ”  
  
Maxie’s exclamation didn’t seem to transfer well to Lysandre via the PokeNav, whose blank expression through the enlarged screen of the updated model didn’t seem to relate sympathy.  
“He’s been hounding me nonstop—it has been years since we have ended our days in Team Magma and Team Aqua respectively, yet he still has the nerve to send me… _Things._ ”  
In disgust, the redhead cast aside the pornographic magazine—of _homosexual men,_ nonetheless—to the side after having given Lysandre perhaps all too much of a good view of it.  
“Have you incited his anger in such a way that he thought this to be a fitting response?” Lysandre’s voice came through the PokeNav, as clear and smooth as if he had been there in person.  
Sighing in an exaggerated fashion and shifting on the couch so that he properly faced the propped-up PokeNav on the arm of the couch, Maxie puffed out his cheeks.

“… Perhaps—“  
“What did you send him?”  
Maxie scowled, not liking to be interrupted, but Lysandre’s unnerving, intimidating stare was enough to lure out an answer.  
“Just... just… several books on how to properly house train your child—and pokemon—and uhm, diapers…”  
Watching Lysandre’s face drop into secondhand embarrassment and disappointment was enough to make Maxie look shamefully to the side.  
“ _Christ,_ Maxie—have you both somehow morphed back into being children?”  
Maxie was silent, Lysandre pursing his lips.

“Look, Maxie, we will have to finish this call another day. I have business to attend to, and it seems you have plenty on your own plate as well. Please, stop sending inappropriate things to your former rival. I sincerely doubt Archie will be the bigger one out of the two of you and do so himself.”  
Sullenly looking back over to the PokeNav, seeing Lysandre looking off to the side in distraction, he pouted somewhat.  
“Fine, fine. I’ll stop.”  
“Good. I’ll talk to you again as soon as I can, Maxie. Good bye.”  
Maxie opened his mouth to bid Lysandre farewell, but the other man had already ended the call, leaving him in a dead silence that felt unsettling.

Staring at the now static-ridden screen, Maxie sighed and shut off the PokeNav, placing it on the coffee table that his Mightyena laid beneath.  
The dark-type perked up, thumping her tail against the floor until he reached out and scratched behind her ears, her lips splitting in a toothy smile before she grunted, rolling back onto her side.  
“Seems like we’ve both become lazy as time has gone by,” he muttered to the slightly chubby Mightyena whom had once been a major contender on his team. Now his Crobat just sat outside all day in his garden nibbling on the fruit growing in his trees, his Mightyena eating her way gradually into obesity, and his Camerupt—well, his Camerupt had always been of the lazy sort.  
Giving her one last pat, Maxie stood up, looking at the magazine he had thrown aside.

The front cover displayed an erotically posed man who was very much naked, legs spread and back arched to pull the skin on his front tight over his muscles. The logo of the magazine itself was cleverly placed over his crotch as to conceal whatever he was packing, and with eyes lingering far too long on the perfectly tanned spectacle, Maxie flushed red and grabbed it in rage.  
“Stupid Archie,” he hissed, preparing to rip it in half—with a bit of effort, considering the magazine was quite thick—when hearing a door open.  
“Maxie, sir?”  
His eyes snapped up from the front of the magazine to Courtney walking into his living room after letting herself in, spotting him at the couch.  
“Ah! Maxie, sir, I wanted—“  
She froze, belatedly noticing the magazine he held in his hands, the distinctive flush to his cheeks, and now the air of humiliation that hung about him heavily.

“A-ah, C-Courtney, it… it truly isn’t what it looks like…”

\---

Shelly looked at her girlfriend in disbelief, her face scrunched up.  
“You’re tellin’ me Maxie had a gay magazine?”  
“A _porn_ magazine,” Courtney sputtered, pacing the small bedroom space, Shelly watching her walk tight circles from her perch at the edge of their bed.  
“At least that’s enough of a hint that he’s gay! And it is even greater of an explanation of his behavior towards Archie!”  
She whipped around and Shelly flinched at the intensity of the motion, looking wary of the glow in Courtney’s eyes.

“He just doesn’t know how to approach his affection towards Archie!”  
“I think you’re really letting those fanfics of yours get to your head…”  
Courtney’s look of discovery became a scowl, her hands clenching into fists and pressing to her hips.  
“Fine, whatever. Did you get Archie to come with us?”  
Shelly grinned with a laugh, “Of course! But, uh, I didn’t tell him it’s gonna be a double date—“  
“What did you tell him?”  
Shelly didn’t look so satisfied when Courtney was suddenly looming over her, fidgeting on the bed as she stared at the wall.  
“… Uhm, I told ‘im that, uh, I wanted him to try out this new restaurant with me—and uh, you.”  
Courtney groaned, twisting around and thumping down on the bed next to Shelly, leering at the floor.

“You didn’t tell him that,” she grumbled.  
“… Yeah, I actually, uh, told ‘im I’d pick up to go to a local pub and get drunk.”  
Shelly frowned as Courtney buried her face in her hands, helplessly rubbing her shoulder as she tried to recover her smile.  
“Eyy, it won’t be that bad? I mean, you lied to Maxie too, right?”  
“I told him I need him to go on a double date with me,” she grumbled, her words muffled by her soft hands. “But that I’d just bring a friend along to be his ‘date’ and he wouldn’t have to do anything. Said it’s for a discount at a nice restaurant.”  
Shelly frowned.  
“That’s still kinda a lie, right? I mean, the restaurant isn’t offering a discount for groups of four—“  
“But it’s better than saying we’re going to a _pub!_ ”

Courtney jerked back and threw up her arms, startling Shelly, who gawked at the explosive reaction.  
“Sorry, sorry, I’ll fix it. You need to stop stressing so much—c’mere—“  
Courtney whined as she was pulled close in a tight hug, squirming somewhat until she found a comfortable spot pushed up against Shelly, smushing her cheek up against her shoulder.  
“It’s gonna be alright, okay?”  
Shelly’s low, soothing hum was enough to quell the anxiety building in Courtney’s stomach for the time being, closing her eyes as manicured fingers combed through her short hair.  
“Yeah,” Courtney mumbled in agreement. “Yeah, it’s gonna be alright…”  
A firm kiss was pressed to the top of her head and then several softer ones were made to her cheeks and forehead until she was caught in a fit of giggles, laughing as Shelly wrestled her fully onto the bed.

“Now, I wanna sleep,” Shelly proclaimed, cupping Courtney’s face in her hands and looking her dead in the eye.  
“And I don’t wanna hear no more whining or crying. The date tomorrow night is gonna go fine, and even if nothin’ sparks between ‘em, at least you tried, okay?”  
Courtney blinked and nodded, Shelly smiling and giving her a peck on the lips.  
“Alrighty—good night, Courtney.”

\---

“YOU SET ME UP!”

Archie’s bellow was enough to startle passerby, the former Aqua leader gritting his teeth in embarrassment as he felt an assortment of different gazes turn upon him in the parking lot.  
“Archie, shut up already—it’s just one little date, and all you gotta do is sit there and stuff your face. Courtney and I already agreed that we’re paying for everyone here.”  
Breathing in deeply, trying to refrain from screaming again at his former secondhand woman, Archie’s eyes snapped over to where Courtney stood besides Shelly, his harsh gaze enough to get her to look down.  
“ _Hey._ ”  
Shelly, shifting somewhat in front of Courtney, leaned forward and gave Archie as equally of a vicious look, her lips contorting into a snarl.  
“If you look at her like that again, I’ll knock your lights out. Stop being such a big baby.”

Pulling back, Archie frowned, not entirely anticipating such a protective stance to be taken on by Shelly, but willing to concede that giving Courtney nasty looks wouldn’t benefit his situation.  
“… When the hell is Maxie going to be here?”  
“Right now.”  
The trio looked over to see Maxie joining them, his expression grim as he observed them some short distance away.  
Arms folded over his chest, he didn’t look pleased, but Courtney could at least find relief in the fact he wasn’t reacting as badly as Archie had—and that he had actually dressed nice, unlike Archie, who had dressed casually for the expensive restaurant she had picked out.

“Courtney, is this what you had in mind from the start? When you had asked me to come with you on this double date?”  
Courtney smiled sheepishly, Archie looked a tiny bit horrified at the words ‘double date’, and Shelly looked as frustrated as she had been.  
“… Maybe?”  
Grinding his teeth, the redhead looked undoubtedly frustrated as he fiddled with his glasses, pushing them up carefully as he brewed.  
“… I’m only here for you,” Maxie finally decided, looking Courtney dead in the eye, his own narrowing somewhat behind his glasses.  
“Despite the fact that _imbecile_ is here—“  
“Hey!”  
“I’ll tolerate it. If only for your company and Shelly’s.”  
Even though she felt close to exploding from her own frustration, there was some satisfaction that despite that they both had originated from Team Aqua, she had somehow managed to garner a higher opinion from Maxie than Archie had in the years.  
Archie looked irked, but otherwise silent as he, too, considered all that occurred within those short few minutes.  
“… I guess I can deal with it too. But you owe me, Shelly.”  
Rolling her eyes and jamming her elbow sharply into Archie’s ribs, eliciting a grunt of pain, Shelly leisurely hooked her arm around her girlfriend’s waist and walked off towards the restaurant.

“Whatever, let’s go.”  
Rubbing the now tender spot, Archie scowled, making sure he had some good distance placed between himself and Maxie as they headed into the brightly lit restaurant that illuminated the dark sidewalk nearby.  
“You should’ve at least told me to dress nicer,” Archie grumbled to Shelly, it slowly dawning on him that everyone but him in their small party was dressed well. His loose t-shirt and jeans didn’t exactly fit, especially when compared to Maxie, with his black turtleneck and dark red blazer, his hands pushed deep into black, wool slacks. Certainly didn’t make him look any less crabby.  
“Nah. Then you would’ve gotten suspicious.”  
  
Scowling at her dismissive tone, Archie tried to keep a straight face that showed none of his embarrassment as the hostess gave them a warm smile that faltered when seeing him. He would’ve liked to imagine it was spurned from just how gorgeous he was, but more than likely did she pause at how off he looked with the rest of the group.  
“Right this way,” she hummed, not missing a beat even with the distraction of Archie, turning on her heel and guiding them to a booth.  
“Your server will be right with you,” she said as she set out menus, pausing.

Shelly and Courtney had been quick to sit on one side together, forcing Archie and Maxie onto the other, though what caused their hostess to get a strange look were the two men practically growling at each other.  
Her look had a tinge of fear to it at the sight of them giving one another vicious looks, but it seemed to suddenly just stop.  
“… Right. Okay. Have a good night, folks,” she chimed before quickly going away, Archie whimpering in pain as he reached down and rubbed the now sore spot on his shin.  
“Why’d you kick me?” he whined, Shelly snarling at him.  
“Because you’re acting like a bunch of children,” she hissed, her voice hushed to try and not draw the attention of their fellow patrons.

Flipping open the menu, she ignored Archie’s hurt stare, Courtney looking sheepish as she smiled over at Maxie.  
He was sitting on the inside of the booth, his side pressed flush to the wall dividing them from the next room over, creating as much distance between himself and Archie as was physically possible.  
“He started it,” Maxie grumbled, sending Archie one last dirty look before picking up his menu, needing something else to focus on.  
Courtney opened her mouth to try and offer something, but her mind was blank, watching the two squabbling men just bury themselves into their menus, and even Shelly trying to do the same and distract herself from the mess that had only just begun.

“Welcome to Romano’s!”  
She jerked upright when hearing the pleasant chirp of their server, who looked happy as she greeted them. Courtney managed to smile, but the other three didn’t even look up, or at least Shelly didn’t until Courtney, under the table, squeezed her knee.  
“How’s everyone doing today?” the server asked, Shelly giving a tight smile, the boys did not even looking up.  
“Fine,” Courtney replied cheerfully, trying to ignore the tension just across the table.  
“Are we all ready to order some drinks?” the server tried instead when only getting a tight smile from Shelly and no response from either Maxie or Archie, taking out a pad and pen as she prepared for a long night of serving a tension-laden group.

“Uhm, water is fine for me,” Courtney began, glancing over to Shelly, who nodded her agreement of wanting the same, the server jotting it down quickly.  
“I want your strongest, alcoholic beverage,” Archie growled from across the table, Shelly incapable of scolding him with the server there. She blinked, looking a bit confused by his demand but offered, “I’ll see what I can do, sir.”  
Maxie, his expression cool and collected even with his prior vicious antics with Archie, glanced up from the menu, last to order.  
“Anything from your wine selection is fine.”  
Looking a touch happier with being given a far more pleasant range of options rather than a vicious demand, the server nodded and wrote it down.  
“Okay, I’ll be back out soon.”  
  
She went away and Shelly turned on Archie.  
“Are you kidding me? We’re not at the pub, Archie,” she snapped, Archie rolling his eyes and laying the menu flat on the table, looking down at it.  
“You’re paying, so I’m just gonna have what I want.”  
Looking nigh upon kicking him again under the table, Shelly paused as Courtney touched her hand, giving a feeble smile.  
“Just let it slide,” she mumbled. “Maybe it’ll get him to calm down.”  
Pursing her lips, Shelly settled back, flicking back open her menu with a grumble, an uncomfortable silence swathing over them with nothing else to offer up as a conversational topic.

\---

Courtney was somewhat correct in her assumption, at least after Archie had several glasses of the mysterious alcohol that had been given to him. The server never offered it a name, just giving occasionally sweeping by and refilling his glass as they quietly ate, the silence not improving even with the delivery of food.  
Maxie sipped at his wine, Courtney picked at her pasta, and Shelly tried her best not to jam her steak too angrily into her mouth.  
By the fifth glass—and by the time the server gently told Archie she couldn’t provide him any more—Archie had become less interested in his food and more interested in Maxie, his eyes predatory and making Courtney nervous.  
Maxie had downed at least three glasses, but he at least seemed sane—then again, he hadn’t gone for something as ridiculous as Archie had.

“Why you sittin’ so far away from me, Maxie? Think you’re gonna catch some disease?” hissed Archie, luckily still sounding sober—Courtney nor Shelly knew what to do with a drunken Archie—but perhaps on the verge of tipping into drunkenness.  
“Probably. Considering you have a love of swimming in trash-infected waters, I’m sure you’ve contracted more than one disease.”  
Maxie didn’t miss a beat in daintily spooning a mouthful of clam chowder into his mouth, not even sparing Archie a glance.  
“Boys…” Shelly started, but she could see that it was already too late and had been too late the moment she had permitted Archie to start drinking.  
“Oh? And what’re you gonna do if I move a little closer?”  
Courtney peered up, spotting Maxie’s calm visage fading into something other than calm as Archie easily eliminated the space between them, their shoulders now brushing and Archie looming uncomfortably close over Maxie.

“Stop breathing down my neck,” Maxie muttered, his eyes focused intently on his chowder, his teeth slowly grinding as the spoon shook faintly in his tightened grasp.  
“What you gonna do? Send more of those stupid books to me?” sneered Archie, bumping his shoulder purposefully to make Maxie’s spoon clatter against the edge of his bowl. This was enough to incite the spoon to fall entirely out of his grasp, the redhead twisting so that his back was pressed back against the wall, his lips contorting in a snarl.  
“Maybe if you didn’t send me porn I wouldn’t be sending you anything!” he snapped, irritated that Archie still looked so satisfied, so happy.  
“Don’t you like that kinda shit? I heard from a couple of buddies that you’ve been seein’ that Lysandre guy…”  
Archie’s voice dropped into a gossiping whisper, leaning in closer and causing the hairs on the nape of Maxie’s neck to stand on end.

There were some people looking over from other tables, Courtney getting nervous and Shelly leaning forward, about to stop the problem herself.  
“Boys—“  
The hard slap shocked her into silence, gawking as Maxie struck Archie hard enough to send him reeling, and apparently enough to knock him back into being completely sober as he gawked.  
“Don’t you _dare_ assume such things about me!” snarled Maxie, Archie opening and closing his mouth, incapable of coming up with anything. He didn’t need to—he was shoved out of the booth and onto the floor, Maxie storming off out of the restaurant with all eyes turning to his fleeting figure, and then to the man who laid on the floor in a state of shock.  
“Maxie!” Courtney cried, about to get out of the booth and pursue him, but Archie was already on his feet and out of the room, running after the infuriated redhead.  
Still trying to get up, her arm was grabbed and she was pulled back down, looking over in confusion at Shelly.  
“Let ‘em work it out between themselves. They got a lot to talk about and that doesn’t require either of us.”  
Frowning, though still panicked over Maxie’s aggressive reaction to the mention of his childhood friend, she settled back down, dismally looking to where she had last seen the two men.

 

“Maxie!”  
Maxie already was searching for his keys, the parking lot darker than it had been when he had first arrived and far less easy to traverse when his mind was clouded with anger and urgency surged through his veins.  
“ _Maxie!_ ”  
He wanted to turn around and scream to be left alone, but he wanted to also get to his car and get the hell out of there before his pursuer could catch up.  
Keys found and halfway out of his pocket, they never made it entirely out as his arm was grabbed and jerked back, Maxie stumbling before finding his balance.  
“Can’t you ever leave me alone?!” Maxie snarled, another wave of anger overcoming him, wanting to claw the distraught look right off of Archie’s face.  
“I’m—I’m, I’m sorry,” blubbered Archie, his eye brows knitting together in concern. Maxie assumed it to be the alcohol speaking. “I didn’t mean to set you off that badly—I mean—“  
“What were you trying to do then? Make me angry, but only a little bit?”  
Maxie rolled his eyes and wrenched his arm out of Archie’s grasp, smoothing out his jacket irritably.

“Yes—no—I don’t know!”  
Archie looked weary and a touch confused, enough to make Maxie remain standing there rather than continue to his car, folding his arms over his chest.  
“We’re always messin’ with each other, I mean, that’s just how it goes. Makin’ you angry is just kinda part of the package and, hell, I don’t know what else to do. We’ve never been anything but like that.”  
Pursing his lips, shifting his weight to rest more on one leg, Maxie narrowed his eyes. It was somewhat true—they only ever had been hating of one another and yes, it was something of a habit now to see who could make the other angrier. But there were some lines they still did not cross—and that included trespassing into personal territory.

“There are some lines we do not cross—“  
“It’s true, though, isn’t it? You and that Lysandre guy?”  
Maxie grimaced, making a look of disgust.  
“I’d call us brothers before lovers. While I suppose he _is_ attractive, we grew up together as practically family, and I cannot imagine doing… _That._ ”  
His look of disgust only furthered and he shook his head, looking back into the parking lot, watching others pool out of the restaurant and head out to their vehicles to go home, as he had intended to do.  
“What, are you jealous?”  
  
It seemed he had hit the nail on the head, Archie not so capable of concealing his emotions as a faint flush rose to his cheeks, embarrassment easily read.  
“The great Archie— _jealous._ That’s certainly a sight I’d never thought I’d see.”  
“Oh, shut up!”  
Maxie leaned forward, his eyes glowing and crinkled up in satisfaction, Archie warily shifting back.  
“I bet those magazines were yours. How kind of you, surely sacrificing some of your stash in order to harass me with your childish attempts of showing your affection—“  
“I swear to god, Maxie—“  
“—and yet so incapable of even talking to me in person.”  
Archie’s flush had darkened, his tanned complexion not quite enough to hide it, and Maxie felt so satisfied to see him not feeling so superior, though not entirely kicked off of his high horse.

“At least Lysandre would have been brave enough to speak to me of his affections if he had any. Hell, he’s already closer to me than you ever have been and he hasn’t even had to try,” mused Maxie, nonchalantly noting the jealousy that sparked up in Archie’s clouded eyes, the slight twitching of the corners of his mouth as he tried not to spit out sharp retaliations. He could see it burning in his eyes, the need to defend himself and perhaps the desire to insult Lysandre, to prove himself as superior, as he always did.  
From spitting mad, Maxie let a smile curve his lips, feeling far better now that he was back in the saddle, leaning forward.  
“Poor baby doesn’t even have anything to offer me,” murmured Maxie pityingly, pushing his eye brows together and giving a slight pout of sympathy, curious to see how far he could push Archie, who already looked at his limits.

“Is this all you have to offer me—“  
It finally seemed too much for Archie, who reached out for him, grabbing him by the shoulders and yanking him forward, looking nigh upon murderous.  
“I swear to _fucking god,_ ” Archie began, his voice a gravelly hiss, his teeth flashing in a snarl.  
“I am _better_ than that fuckhead _Lysandre_ and whatever he does, _I_ can do _better_.”  
While Archie’s darkened expression was somewhat intimidating, Maxie did not look frightened in the slightest of the other’s anger and jealousy, instead smiling.  
“Alright. Then prove me wrong.”  
Archie blinked, shocked and confused, his confusion only worsened as Maxie’s hand smoothing along his shoulder to his neck, soft and gentle as his fingers settled where his neck met his skull.  
His grip firmed, palm flattening entirely as he pulled Archie into a kiss, the angry hands on his shoulders loosening.  
Archie’s stunned reaction melted away as Maxie pushed a bit closer, the redhead feeling the action returned, hands once viciously holding onto him shifting, one pushing up into his hair and the other braced against his lower back.  
The first to pull away, Maxie was satisfied to read disappointment in Archie’s expression, desire filling up those alcohol-fogged eyes.  
“So far, you’re doing better,” he hummed, pushing against Archie’s chest and separating them, going back to fish out his keys, looking for his car.

“ _Better_? What does that mean? Wait, you said you guys were like brothers—has he—“  
Archie’s aggravated—and aggravating—voice was silenced with a hand over his mouth, his eyes flicking down to the hand smothering any other words of protesting to the owner of said hand.  
Waiting for him to calm down enough to be tolerable, Maxie let his hand drop, arching an eye brow.  
“Did you come with Shelly?”  
Archie nodded slightly.  
“Then I can give you a ride home. I am not going back into that restaurant after all that, and I can call Courtney later and explain things.”  
Dumbfounded, but willing to go along with it, Archie followed Maxie’s motion to tag along as he went deeper into the parking lot.

“Besides, I need to return that magazine of yours to you…”


End file.
